


Before Midnight

by mostlyjustgoose



Category: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, Kyouryuu Sentai Zyuranger
Genre: Action & Romance, Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Relationship, F/F, Fairy Tale Elements, Fractured Fairy Tale, M/M, Magical Accidents, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-13
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-01 09:00:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5199983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mostlyjustgoose/pseuds/mostlyjustgoose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When an ally calls on the Gokaigers for help finding a missing teammate, they find themselves facing one of their most unusual challenges yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ka_tsu_ra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ka_tsu_ra/gifts), [gingayellow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingayellow/gifts), [labicheramure](https://archiveofourown.org/users/labicheramure/gifts).



"I don't get it," Marvelous said around a mouthful of half-chewed grapes. "Why would that little guy throw a party where all he does is sing about his real name?"

Gai sighed. Today's attempt at giving his teammates a taste of Earth culture--in the form of a stage musical on DVD called _Rumpelstiltskin: A Legend of Love and Gold_ \--wasn't going half as well as he would have liked. Everyone kept interrupting to ask a zillion questions or give their own commentary, but Marvelous especially couldn't seem to sit still for more than two minutes at a time.

"It's a fairy tale. Magic doesn't have to make sense."

"That's a lame answer," Luka piped up from her place on the arm of the couch. "And what's he want with a baby, anyway?"

"That's not the point--"

"Shut up." The interruption came from Joe, who'd taken up a seat on his exercise bench and had been intermittently doing sit-ups through the entire first act. "I can't hear if you guys keep yammering."

"Fine, fine. Long as this thing's over before dinner."

The quiet that followed, like so many quiet moments in the past few weeks, was uneasy. Gai couldn't pinpoint when it had started, but there had definitely been a slow and uncomfortable change in the air aboard the Galleon. It was most obvious on days like this, when they didn't have much to do--if they let the silences go on too long, the words that punctuated them became tense and snappish. Marvelous was the worst offender, and lately things had gotten so bad that on some days all he and Joe would say to each other was some variation on 'shut up'. The change was more subtle with Ahim--she'd simply gotten quieter, and her solitary teatimes went on far longer than usual. Luka was either nowhere to be found or constantly in someone's face making a ruckus. And Don...

Well. He was putting up with it as best he could, but there was a little worry-wrinkle taking up residence between his eyebrows. Whatever was going on, it was taking a toll on him too. More than once Gai had wanted to ask if he was okay, or if maybe he could do something to cheer him up, but... but the problem was, every time he let himself think about it, the thoughts started to spin themselves into daydreams. Embarrassing daydreams.

The kind of daydreams he'd been trying (and failing) not to have about other guys for most of his life.

So he kept his thoughts to himself, even if it made him feel sort of guilty for no good reason.

He nearly jumped when one of Ahim's slim hands came to rest on his shoulder.

"Gai-san? Are you feeling well? You look a bit flushed."

"Oh--no, I'm totally fine! Just. Kinda warm, I guess."

Thankfully, before either Joe or Marvelous could tell him to shut up or Don could come over to check him for a fever, his Cellular started ringing. Probably his mom calling to check in with him, as she did at least once a month. It didn't spare him from Luka's foot catching him in the small of his back and nearly sending him sprawling as he got up, but at least it gave him a way out of the fidgety silence.

Out of politeness he waited until he'd jogged into the galley to answer. "Hello?"

"Ah, hello. Is this Ikari Gai, of the Gokaigers?"

The voice was a man's, and not a familiar one. Gai stood up very straight, even though the stranger had no way of seeing him.

"Yes, it is--"

"Good." The stranger sounded relieved. "I'm sorry if I startled you, but as a fellow sentai I was hoping you could help."

"A fellow sentai?" His eyes widened. "Who is this?"

"I don't think we've met. I am the Prince of the Yamato Tribe, Geki, of the Zyurangers."

Gai very nearly dropped the Cellular. A former Red--the first one whose name Gai had learned as a little kid, no less--was calling him! Any thought of the weird tensions in the other room evaporated.

"Oh! Geki-san! It's such an honor--"

"I appreciate it, but I'm afraid I don't have much time to chat." Geki sounded apologetic--just like a proper prince, some part of Gai's brain put in, and he had to clamp his mouth shut tight to keep from squeaking. "One of my team has gone missing, and so far we haven't been able to find him on our own."

The excited squeak soured in Gai's throat. "Missing?"

"Yes. You met him, I think--Goushi, our Warrior of Knowledge."

* * *

"Thank you for coming all this way. I realize it was probably inconvenient."

"We can't go back to space until the Galleon's fully repaired anyway, it's no big deal." Joe nearly added, _Plus now we're not all sitting around arguing about the rules of some dumb fairy tale._ "Besides, we kind of owe you for loaning us your Grand Power."

Geki smiled. Like most former Reds, age had been kind to him: the guy had to be pushing fifty, but he still moved with a casual grace and confidence that suggested he was still in fighting shape. "I suppose it was a loan, wasn't it? But your team made excellent use of it."

"We do what we can." Marvelous flashed him a cocky grin, the kind of broad and lopsided smile that infuriated Joe for no good reason. "So. Gai says one of your crew disappeared around here?"

"Yes. Two days ago." Geki's own smile faded, leaving his eyes before his mouth softened and straightened. "Recently, Goushi told me he'd been hearing the neighborhood children talk about a 'test of courage' in these woods--" and here he gestured beyond the edge of the playground where they'd agreed to hold their meeting, towards the trees that bordered it-- "and something about it reminded him of a run-in we had with our great enemy, Witch Bandora. When he didn't come home for dinner that night, well..."

"Geki-san says it's not like Goushi-san to stay away so long," Gai put in, nearly bouncing on the balls of his feet. "And if he found an old trap or something of Bandora's, he needs all the help he can get! She was really sneaky, and--"

Luka promptly shut him up with an elbow to the gut.

"And when I went to look for him..." Geki held out one of his hands, palm up, to reveal a small round medal with a weird elephant-like creature on it. A mammoth, Joe guessed--it had been a while since he'd sat down and paid any kind of attention to Gai's sentai scrapbooks.

Doc, who'd been kind of quiet all day, finally picked this moment to contribute to the conversation.

"Isn't that his Dino Medal?"

"Yes. He can't transform without it, and he'd never just put it down and walk away."

"All right, then." Marvelous folded his arms across his chest. "So it's serious. You know where this courage spot is?"

Geki nodded. "About ten minutes' walk from here."

"Great. Then let's get going!"

Doc made a little noise of dismay and fidgeted, eyeing the tree line. "I don't have a great feeling about this, you guys."

"Captain's orders. Or do you wanna get keelhauled for conduct unbecoming?" The grin that flashed across Marvelous' face for a moment was downright nasty. Predictably, Gai sprang into action.

"Hey! Comrades don't do keelhauling!"

"Pirates do, though."

"You're not keelhauling Don-san!"

"Gai, it's fine." Doc's face had gone bright red. "Don't make a big deal out of it."

It took Joe real, concentrated effort not to roll his eyes. Over the past couple of months it had become more and more obvious that Gai was carrying a serious torch for Doc. Or at least, obvious to everybody but those two, who just kept blushing and mumbling their way through missions and holidays alike. In the last month alone it had gotten bad enough that he and Luka now had a bet going over how long it would take before somebody fessed up to something.

(Not that he hadn't noticed something was up with Luka and Ahim, too. They were just a lot quieter about it. Joe wasn't sure if they'd fought over something or trying to avoid a fight, but either way it wasn't nearly as obnoxious as Gai's constant mooning.)

"Get a move on, Doc." Joe thumped him on the shoulder, and he cringed, as per usual. "We've got plenty of daylight left, anyway."

It was a cool late spring afternoon, the kind where the sky threatened rain but the air was still and soft. Small white flowers shone in between the roots of the trees they passed, brilliant against the grass. Joe found himself unexpectedly reminded of the home planet he'd left long ago, with its extended rainy seasons and the week of gray calm after the yearly monsoon. Somehow the memory wasn't painful--it was simply there, a thought to be examined and turned over and tucked away for later.

Joe had been putting a lot of thoughts away for later, recently. About the way the silences aboard the Galleon had changed, about what might be ahead of them now that they'd defeated the Emperor.

Ahim's voice cut through his reverie, made it easier to shove everything aside in favor of the mission. He was good at that.

"Gai-san, may I ask what a test of courage is?"

"Oh--it's a thing Earth kids do. You and your friends go to a place where there are supposed to be ghosts or evil spirits, or just a place that's really dark and creepy at night. And if you come back with some kind of token proving you were there, it means you've proven how brave you are!"

"How fascinating!" Though he couldn't see her from his place at the head of their little group, Joe was sure she must be clasping her hands in delight. "Perhaps we ought to try it. It sounds most thrilling."

"We're pirates," Marvelous cut in, in his casual, drawling way. "We got plenty of guts to go around. Don't see who we'd need to prove that to."

"That's not the point--"

Gai was cut off mid-squawk by a sudden crash somewhere ahead of them. Almost in unison their forward march came to a halt, everyone falling silent.

Something massive and dark was moving between the trees in the distance, something whose silhouette suggested a long neck and a vast bulk of muscle. Now that they were all quiet, seven people holding their breath at once, it was easy to make out the distant sounds of snuffling and grunting, the swish of enormous paws moving through grass.

Geki charged.

Joe swore under his breath, breaking into a run to keep up with him. The others followed in a clatter of hastily drawn weaponry. Somewhere ahead of them, the dark shape lumbered away, clearly spooked by the sound of a crazy middle-aged Red and a bunch of pirates hurrying after it. It wasn't graceful, but it was big enough to cover more ground at a faster clip than the rest of the group.

And then, a split second before they stumbled into the clearing en masse, it was simply gone.

Geki nearly skidded to a halt; Doc almost fell on his face, and the girls knocked into each other.

"What the Hell was that?" Marvelous demanded, brandishing his sword and pistol like that would bring the creature back for a proper fight.

"Maybe this place really is haunted." Doc's voice was edging dangerously close to a whine.

"Whatever it was, it'll be back," Geki said. "We've got to find Goushi before it does."

Questions rose in Joe's throat and popped like so many bubbles against the backs of his teeth, dispelled by a more immediate concern. Because the clearing in which they now stood was littered with broken statues and low, flat, carved slabs of stone.

They were in an abandoned graveyard.

Joe couldn't suppress the chill that crawled down the back of his neck. No wonder kids challenged each other to hang out here--it was creepy, and the trees around them had swallowed the ambient sounds of the city. Even the bird calls were scarcer and quieter.

A flash of movement caught Joe's attention: Marvelous striding across to the far end of the clearing, sword slung carelessly over his shoulder. "Damn it." With an exasperated growl he slapped at the lumpy, overgrown statue closest to him--

\--and _flinched,_ dropping both his weapons with a startled sound.

"Marvelous!" Joe moved without thinking. There was a brilliant spot of red blooming in the palm of Marvelous' outstretched hand--a red that was more than simply blood, Joe realized abruptly. As it expanded, it glowed and crackled, the air around them thrumming with a sound that he felt more than heard, vibrating through the long bones in his body. That sound gathered, growing louder the way a wave crests--building, looming, a long hum that invaded his brain and towered over his thoughts...

Until it crashed in a single, deep, clear note, one that hit Joe like a fist in the center of his chest and sent darkness flooding into his brain.


	2. Chapter 2

_"Luka-san?"_

_The voice came from behind her; when she turned, the light of sunset poured over her face, tangling in her eyelashes and making her squint. (She loved any planet with a real sunset--growing up she'd mostly seen cityscapes and the starless banks of cloud that loomed over them.)_

_"I wanted to... that is..."_

_The warmth on her shoulder was solid and sweet. A gentle hand, reaching out. For a moment Luka was dazzled by the glow and the softness, by a perfume that seemed to fill her lungs, Earth roses and almond and a sharp kick of gunpowder at the finish._

_And with the Emperor dead, reduced to dust, Luka was weak for a moment._

_Just a moment._

_Then the panic set in._

She nearly jumped awake, sweat gathering at her temples and in the hollow between her shoulderblades. Her heart hammered at her breastbone like it was trying to tear itself loose. Every deep, desperate breath she sucked in chased the dream further from her fogged brain, until she was left steady but hyper-alert.

_Don't think about it. Don't let it rule you._

With a last long inhale, Luka rolled to her side and sat up. Somehow there was a roof over her head now: playground, graveyard, and forest had all disappeared, replaced by a weirdly fancy sitting room. She was facing a large stone fireplace, and even from several feet away an occasional breath of heat from the flames inside it brushed her face.

Stupid thing. Must've set off something in her brain while she didn't have full control of it, was all.

Something else wasn't quite right. Though she didn't feel anything when she reached back to check her skull for bumps, her body seemed heavier than usual, and there was a tightness in her chest that had nothing to do with the dream. Only when she looked down at herself did she realize what was wrong, and the revelation made her squawk.

Whatever weirdo had brought her here, he'd also changed her clothes. Instead of the cute-but-practical ensemble she'd put on that morning, she was laced into a yellow gown with an uncomfortably tight bodice (well, that explained the pressure, at least) and a ridiculously big skirt. Like something out of that fairy tale musical Gai had been trying to show them.

If Gai was involved in this, she'd kill him.

Come to think of it, where was he? Or any of the others, for that matter? She twisted, surveying the room around her. Big expensive rug, big expensive chair, big expensive vase full of expensive flowers on a little expensive end table...

And Marvelous, lying face down by the wide, open window that took up most of one wall.

He wasn't moving. Luka swatted aside a stab of fear and wrestled the skirt up around her knees so she could get to her feet; the end result was a lot of very undignified flailing and a hop-hobble over to brace herself against the windowsill.

"Marvelous?" Okay, so she kind of hoped he wouldn't wake up while she was trying to force down the extravagant poofiness of her skirt so she could kneel by him. "Marvelous, come on, snap out of it."

Nothing. His back rose and fell quietly--he was breathing, and breathing was something, at least.

"Come on, you big jerk--"

She reached out to grab his shoulder, and her hand went right through him.

For a terrible moment she thought she must be seeing things. Maybe Marvelous wasn't really there at all and she was still dreaming... except, no, the floor was solid and cold under her palm. The longer Luka stared, the further that chill seemed to spread up her own body. He was _translucent,_ the pattern of the floor tiles visible through the red velvet of his captain's coat and the mess of his dark hair. She could even see her own pulse jumping in the veins along the back of her hand.

Marvelous stirred, and a wobbly, high-pitched whine knocked loose from her throat. She scuttled backwards; the enormous skirt tangled around her legs.

"Muh." His eyebrows drew together, even before he opened his eyes, and he rolled over onto his back to scowl at the ceiling. "The hell happened?"

Luka's mouth opened, but nothing came out. Marvelous levered himself up into a sitting position; when he caught sight of her his eyes widened and his mouth tilted into a startled grin. "You raid Ahim's wardrobe while I was knocked out or what?"

That, that drove out the fear and anxiety and brought indignation rushing back in. Luka wished there was something close to hand to throw at him. "Shut up! I woke up like this, idiot."

"Sure, whatever." He eyed her again, no doubt entertaining thoughts of blackmail, before lifting one hand and peering at it. "Huh. Weird. I cut my hand back there, but the cut's gone. You okay?"

"Peachy." She shimmied around, trying to get all the layers of petticoat out of her way and simultaneously kick off the dainty little high heels the mystery weirdo had replaced her shoes with. "Don't know what the dress is all about, but I guess there's worse things to wake up to."

"Yeah. Guess so."

He was looking past her now, his whole upper body twisted so he could turn his face towards the open window. Luka followed his gaze.

The sky was ablaze with a sunset as vivid as any she'd seen since coming to Earth--the kind where a wide blue arch of sky faded softly to black as the clouds caught fire with color. Except that the clouds, pink and orange and glowing gold, looked like letters. She recognized the smooth lines of the alphabets she already knew by heart, but there were other shapes grouped together, ones that looked less familiar. The words themselves were bizarre, connected in fragments.

_Once upon a time. A kingdom far, far away. Golden apples. Hedge of thorns. Glass shoe._

_Fearsome monster._

She remembered the black thing that had run from them in the woods, and the skin along the back of her neck prickled with dread. Had it come along with them? Had it lured them into a trap?

"You see that, right?" Marvelous asked.

"Yeah." Luka leaned forward, pushing back up onto her knees with some difficulty. It was a little easier to haul herself to her feet without those damn shoes, though she had to grip the windowsill to do it. The view got even weirder the more of it she could see: instead of the city skyline she'd become used to during their time on Earth, the landscape was mostly green. In the distance, the white stone of a castle caught and reflected the glow of sunset.

That wasn't the weirdest part, though. Sure, she'd been able to gather they were sort of high up--if you can see sky but no trees, it's probably a safe bet you're above ground level--but when she looked down she realized just how high, and her breath stuttered.

Sloping away below the windowsill was the long, jagged, shining shape of a mountainside. For a moment Luka thought it must be ice, from the way its surface shimmered. But the air here was warm and still, and the mountain didn't have the wet, rippling quality of solid ice. Though it had been sculpted or cut into the same uneven, tapering crags as natural stone, it looked weirdly smooth, the way a gem's facets might.

"That's not normal." Marvelous had come up beside her, quietly, and it was all she could do not to jump or reach out and try to wallop him. "Your Mobirates knocking around anywhere in all that lace?"

"I don't think so." The damn thing didn't even have pockets, and she'd done enough very tricky jobs to recognize the difference in weight when something was sewn into the hem of a gown. "You got yours?"

"Nope." He crossed his arms over his chest and let out an irritated sigh before turning his back on the window. "So. First order of business, figure out a way to contact the others." He strode towards the big expensive chair at the other end of the room, and, as if he were still aboard the Galleon, sank into it.

Well. Through it.

He fell hard, reacting a little too late to catch himself, and swore loudly as the back of his head nearly knocked against the floor.

"Yeah, uh," Luka said. "About that."

* * *

"Gai."

He was floating, suspended in a familiar darkness. The voice that cut through all the nothing was commanding and unfamiliar.

"Ikari Gai."

He opened his eyes and found himself looking up at a horse.

Or at least he thought it was a horse at first. The closer he looked, the less certain he was. It wasn't that it looked wrong, it just seemed... a little unreal. For one thing, its neck and legs were far slimmer than average, and its coat looked more like the thick pile of velvet than like the smooth grain of an animal's fur. And for another, it was so white it was almost blinding, a white that would change with the sweat and breath and effort of a real animal. The whole thing was like someone had pulled out all the stops making a statue or puppet for a stage play--something that'd be convincing, but only from a couple of feet away.

"Hello?" he ventured.

The not-quite-a-horse nickered softly, almost as if it were laughing, and dipped its head to crop at some grass next to his shoulder. Through its forelegs he could see the slender shape of another, similar creature, and two more behind them. When he sat up, he could clearly see that the horses were a team, tethered to a round, golden carriage that nearly glowed against a darkening blue sky.

The carriage door swung open, and a man stepped out.

Gai clapped a hand over his mouth to muffle a startled yell. Even if he hadn't recognized the white-and-green of the stranger's princely outfit, even if he hadn't put the name to the determined and oddly youthful face, Gai would have known him anywhere thanks to the long black dagger in his hand--a dagger that sported the complex gold keys of a flute along one side.

"Burai-san?!"

Burai moved towards him, held out a hand to help him to his feet. "There isn't much time. If you're not injured, we can talk in the carriage."

"No, no, I'm fine!" And, really, even if he had banged himself up a little--well, this was the one and only DragonRanger! He hadn't seen the man's face in that dream forever ago, when he'd been presented with his Cellular and Ranger Key, but just knowing someone so important to the history of Super Sentai had approved of him was still a point of pride. Gai nearly bounced to his feet, grinning hugely. "It's an honor, and--"

Without even letting him finish, Burai took hold of his arm and steered him bodily towards the vehicle. "Quickly, now. We have much to discuss, and time is very short."

"R-right!"

A figure in a pink gown lay slumped across the long, plush velvet seats inside; it took Gai a moment to realize it was Ahim. Concern immediately pushed out all thought of Burai or the weird circumstances they were in, and Gai moved to pull her upright.

"Ahim-san! Are you okay?"

Her pretty face twisted in a frown for a moment before her eyes fluttered open. "I... yes, I believe so. And you?"

"I'm good." He shuffled to the other side of the seat, politely, so he wasn't accidentally sitting on her skirt. (Funny, she'd been wearing a very different dress that morning--this one was simpler, less frilly than the outfits she usually preferred, but more formal somehow.) "Ahim-san, this is Burai-san, of the Zyurangers."

She offered Burai a polite nod, though her gaze had a question behind it when it slid towards Gai. Whatever it was, though, it didn't have time to make its way to her lips before the carriage lurched forward and began to move, the strange hilly scenery outside the windows moving by at a regular clip.

"You came here to find MammothRanger," Burai said, matter-of-factly. "Not a moment too soon. He was trapped here two days ago, in much the same way as your GokaiRed."

"May we ask what happened?" Ahim's tone was all business, cool and polite. "It seemed as if Marvelous-san cut himself on something."

The thin line of Burai's mouth turned down at the corners. "Not quite. Before her power was broken and she was banished, Bandora created a trap for me, using a magic spinning wheel. We never destroyed it, which I admit was a mistake."

"You couldn't have known--" Gai started, his voice almost a squawk, but the look Burai gave him was so quietly mournful the words died in his throat.

"However, even with her trap exposed and defeated, Bandora didn't want to waste the powerful magic she'd put into the wheel. So she decided to use it as an incubator, of sorts, for a Dora Monster--Dora Grimm." For just a moment, Gai could have sworn he looked almost angry. "And in hopes of creating an even stronger monster than all her others, she sealed the spell with stolen power."

Something cold rolled through Gai's chest. "Stolen?"

"A drop of my blood, a strand of my hair, and an inch of my shadow."

There was old misery under his voice, something that reduced the million questions Gai wanted to ask to pure ash in his mouth.

"That's how I'm able to appear to you now. And while I have only limited power in a domain Bandora created, I can offer some help."

He turned that intense dark gaze on Gai, who immediately sat up as straight as he would go.

"Ikari Gai. You are your friends' only hope of retrieving MammothRanger and escaping this place."

Well. That was something he didn't hear every day.

"Only hope? Wha... why me?"

"Because you know the fairy tales of Earth. You learned them as a child. And the only way to break Dora Grimm's power is to bring the tales you encounter to their proper ending."

Suddenly the not-quite-horses, the carriage they pulled, and Ahim's gown made perfect sense. This was a story Gai knew almost as well as the story of any given Super Sentai, a story that showed up in books all over the world.

"But there is a catch."

Burai leaned towards the window, pointing out into the deepening night. There was a shining castle--a proper fairy tale castle, with turrets and flags and brilliantly lit windows--in the near distance, and a mountain behind that. And beyond both of those, rising out of the vast and tangled shapes of ancient trees, was a tall tower with an enormous clock set into the top of each of its four walls. The clock face closest to them, which shone as if lit from the inside, indicated the time was a little past six.

"Goushi entered this realm two days ago. This is his third day, and if he cannot escape by midnight, he will be trapped here forever. As will you and the other Gokaigers."

Well. That didn't seem fair, but it did make sense. Things always happened in patterns in fairy tales. Gifts or trials often came in threes, and midnight, well, that was pretty obvious considering the whole carriage setup.

"I can accompany you for part of your journey. And, as I said, I have some power to help, though not much."

"Oh--just telling us this is going to help a lot, Burai-san!" Gai could already feel his confidence returning. All they had to do was find the others and any fairy tales that might be close by, and they could totally figure this out, no problem!

(Although, if Ahim-san was Cinderella, Gai did have to wonder who her handsome prince might be. For some reason his first thought was Luka-san--she was very dashing, for a girl. Very easy to imagine scouring the countryside on horseback for her lost princess.)

"If I may ask, Burai-san." Ahim sat forward. "Do you know where Goushi-san and our friends are within this world?"

"Yes. But I can only guide you to them." He paused, a thoughtful little frown flashing across his face. "Though I can make the trip quicker."

Before Gai could ask how, Burai turned over the dagger in his hands and raised it to his lips. The hair on the back of Gai's neck prickled. How many times as a kid had he pretended his recorder was Zyusouken and that he was controlling the great Dragon Caesar instead of practicing 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'?

The tune he played was swift and bright, like a military march. Almost immediately the scenery outside began to move faster, to blur into a confused wash of blues and greens. Gai could only watch for a moment before a weird motion-sick feeling started to crawl up into his throat, a feeling that went away when he shut his eyes tight and pulled in deep, controlled breaths. (Which was more embarrassing than anything else. He hadn't been carsick since he was five, and he didn't want to start again now.)

It felt like only seconds later that Ahim's light hand settled on his shoulder and the sound of the horses' hooves began to slow. When he opened his eyes, the carriage was already pulling up to the long staircase that led to the white castle's big front doors.

Almost as soon as it stopped, Burai undid the latch that held the door closed. But rather than helping Ahim down, he jogged up the stairs. Gai nearly shouted, indignant, until he saw a crumpled figure in red lying just outside the doors. As quickly as he could he offered Ahim his hand for support as she hopped down; with a speed and grace that almost surprised him she sprinted after Burai.

"Marvelous-san?"

Gai took the stairs two at a time. But at the top, only a few feet from the sprawled figure, something went _wrong_ with his balance. Maybe it was that the tread on his shoes had been worn down just a hair too smooth; maybe it was that the marble was too finely polished. But whatever the cause, Gai went skidding right past his friends and through the double doors, which slammed behind him with an ominous bang.

He whirled, pounding on the thick wood with one fist. "Hey! Hey, come on--Burai-san, Ahim-san--!"

His voice rang and echoed in a weird way. It sounded too loud, as if it were filling the entire space behind him. As if his shout had dropped into a sudden silence.

Slowly, heart hammering, he turned.

There was another staircase here, this one carpeted in red velvet and lined with candelabras. It flowed down and out into an enormous ballroom, where what looked like hundreds of strange gray figures in elaborate suits and gowns all stood with their featureless faces turned to him. _Golems,_ he thought. _Bandora's small-fry monsters. I can totally handle this if I grab a sword or something._

But none of them moved. They simply stared.

Out of pure reflex, Gai looked down at himself.

The outfit had to be raw silk, silver and luminous in the light of so many candles; the sleeves of his jacket were covered with thick embroidery and a dizzying number of precious stones. And though his shoes were still silver high-tops, the sequins were smoother, like carved scales.

Or like glass.

In eerie quiet, the Golems all moved in unison--clearing a path, from one end of the room to the other. And a single person cut through them, running along the thick carpet. Alone among the 'guests' at this ball, he wore a gold crown. The way a proper charming prince should.

The prince looked up at him, and Gai felt his heart lurch to a stop.

It was Don.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Consciousness came back to Joe just as abruptly as it had left him. One moment everything was silent dark, the next he was squinting at a whole lot of candlelight glinting off of gold leaf and white marble.

Nothing hurt, which was good. And he wasn't in a hospital, which he supposed was promising. But he also wasn't where he'd been when he passed out, and he sure as hell wasn't aboard the Galleon. He shifted, pushing himself upright--he was sitting in some kind of hard-backed chair--and took a quick glance around, assessing the situation.

He was in some kind of vast, high-ceilinged room. (And a sour taste briefly coated his tongue: he'd seen a handful of buildings like this, blasted to ruin, on planets the Zangyack army had torched. It had been difficult, then, not to wonder what they'd looked like before their destruction.) And, he realized with a start, he wasn't alone. Dozens of gray humanoid figures, decked out in ridiculously ornate suits and gowns like the costumes in Gai's dumb fairy tale musical, filled the room, moving in the slow patterns of some very formal dance.

There was another chair next to his own. Doc sat slumped in it, head tilted forward, eyes closed. Somebody had put some kind of big gold crown on his head--in fact, somebody had taken the time to swap out his entire grandpa-on-an-errand outfit with a green suit that looked every bit as costume-y as the gray not-people around them.

That probably wasn't a good sign.

Joe reached over to shake Doc's shoulder. "Hey. Hey, Doc. Wake up."

With a startled little noise, Doc nearly shot upright in his chair. "What?" He sounded panicked, and he blinked rapidly, like someone coming out of a bad dream and unsure whether he'd left it behind.

(It was hard not to feel bad for him sometimes. Sure, in a pinch the guy could break through the fog of anxiety that seemed to hang over him, but more often than not Joe thought he could use a daily run to burn it all out of him, like a nervous puppy. A good stiff drink wouldn't go amiss, either.)

"Take it easy." Okay, that was a fairly useless thing to say to Doc, but Joe pressed on. "You didn't bang your head or anything, right?"

"I don't... think so?" Doc reached back to touch the base of his own skull gingerly. His fingers brushed the bottom edge of the crown, and his eyes went wide when he looked down at himself. "What--hey, how did--"

Maybe he needed a paper bag to breathe into. Joe shifted in his seat; with the movement came the realization that his own clothes were different. Not that far from what he usually wore, just a little fancier, and the boots were stiffer, like they hadn't been broken in yet. He prided himself on being adaptable, so he shrugged it off for the moment--he'd had way worse than uncomfortable boots, and he was pretty sure there was going to be worse to come, so no point in worrying about it.

Doc's babbling came to an abrupt halt. When Joe turned to look at him again, he was staring open-mouthed at the gray dancers.

"That's... that's not what Gormin look like without their helmets, right?"

Granted, Joe had never seen one without a helmet, but he was pretty sure that would only freak Doc out even worse.

"I don't think they're Gormin." They looked too dull and lumpy for that, even in spite of the ridiculous costumes. "And they're ignoring us anyway."

"Yeah, but--"

Before the conversation could devolve into an argument, a flash of movement just over Doc's shoulder caught Joe's attention. The room they were in now was ringed with tall windows, which let in the slanting light of sunset to spill over the floor; the long orange streaks just brushed at the hems of the dancers' gowns and jackets.

A great hunched shadow moved along the floor, blocking out the light. Its shape was weirdly elongated, distorted, but it had a long neck and a wolflike head, and when it lifted a paw to take a forward step Joe could see the long curves of wicked claws.

Slowly--more to keep the creature from noticing his movements than to keep poor nervous Doc at ease--Joe stood. The weight of a sheathed sword banged against his hip and thigh, and Joe took a moment to appreciate that at least this costume business had a practical angle to it.

"Joe?" Doc fidgeted with his crown. Joe ignored him, taking long steps towards the nearest of the windows.

Just beyond the glass, gold light caught on coarse black fur and long, sharp white teeth. The thing was easily twice Joe's height, broad and muscular, and despite the pointed snout it had longer, wider ears than a wolf. It shuffled along with a lumbering, graceless gait; a vast black plume of a tail trailed along behind it as it walked.

Without taking his eyes off of it, Joe reached for the grip of the sword, found it a comfortingly familiar weight in his hand. This part he could handle.

Then the thing turned to look at him.

Joe realized with a start that he hadn't really expected it to have eyes. At least not eyes that had any degree of understanding behind them. But in the moment after its massive head swung around to point at him, he realized he could see light reflecting off of dark irises. The creature blinked, its heavy brow drawing downward, head tipping very slightly. Was the damn thing giving him a once-over?

It took a single, slow step towards him. Joe began to ease the blade free of its scabbard.

Suddenly the thing flinched, as if reacting to a noise Joe couldn't hear. Its jaw opened, long teeth gleaming. The sound it made was only half audible through the glass panes, but it was strange and dry, too low to be a yelp and too long to be a bark.

Then came the bang.

It sounded like a gunshot at the other end of the room. Joe whirled, the sword sliding free, a dazzle of light on metal at the edge of his vision.

"Hey! Hey, come on--Burai-san, Ahim-san--!"

Well. That was a familiar voice. The dancers--and the music that accompanied them, music he hadn't even realized was playing until now--stopped, their attention turning to the gaudy silver figure currently banging on the doors of the ballroom.

He cast a quick glance at the windows. The black thing had vanished, leaving behind only a handful of muddy pawprints on the gleaming marble of the terrace.

When Joe turned back towards Doc, his chair was empty. He was already on his feet and moving, before Joe could even sheathe his sword, running down the center of the ballroom and through the aisle the gray creatures had created while he wasn't looking. There was a strange expression on his face in the moment before he passed Joe, something rapt and startled.

Gai turned, and though he was too far away for the look on his face to be distinct, Joe could tell he'd gone very pale and very still. He stood frozen at the top of the steps as Doc jogged towards him, and for just a moment Joe felt a little stab of formless irritation. He'd expected that the first person to come striding through that door would be Marvelous, probably with his hand all wrapped up in some makeshift bandage, cracking a poorly-timed joke.

When Joe saw him again, he was going to smack Marvelous for making him worry.

Neither Gai nor Doc was moving. The silence was thick and heavy, and when Doc's voice interrupted it the sound was small and trembling, a whisper that echoed through the ballroom.

"Hello."

Gai came down one step, then two. As Joe moved closer, picking his way through the crowd, he could see that Gai's face was quickly going from pale to bright red--a red that matched Doc's ears.

"Don-san."

He sounded downright dreamy. Joe couldn't decide if it was an improvement on all the stammering and awkward silences or if this new development was going to end up making him puke. Not that he wouldn't be happy for them, but he'd never had much patience for lovey-dovey stuff.

"Oh--oh, Gai!" Doc's voice faltered, but it was louder now, at least. "I, uh. I didn't recognize you."

The not-quite-a-smile on Gai's face froze, just for a second. And for all Joe's irritation with him and his oblivious stumbling around, in that second he felt a weird flash of disappointment.

It didn't last long, though. Or at least he didn't have long to think about it.

From some hidden gallery or a corner of the room Joe couldn't see, a swell of music started up. The gray figures moved in unison towards Doc and Gai, forming a loose circle around them.

"Guys? What's going on?" He tried to move forwards, but the lumpy, faceless things crowded in closer to block his way.

"Um--I think they just want--"

There was another clatter at the head of the stairs, which the creatures ignored. The ballroom door swung open with a long, stuttering groan, and to Joe's intense relief it was Ahim who poked her head through. A flash of red registered at her side, and Joe's breath nearly caught before Ahim took a step forward and he recognized the other figure as Geki.

Oh. Of course Marvelous wasn't with them. That'd be too easy.

"Joe-san!" Ahim caught sight of him almost immediately, her expression brightening. "What has happened?"

He cast a quick glance at the tightening circle of silent figures.

"I have no idea."

* * *

For maybe the third time in his life, Gai wanted to melt through the floor and disappear. This was like one of his middle school daydreams gone horribly, horribly wrong--and there were witnesses to it, which was even worse.

And as the terrible icing on an awful cake, he was surrounded by Golems and the sound of a warm, swooning waltz filling the ballroom.

"Uh." He avoided Don's eyes, concentrating instead on staring hard at his left shoulder. If he pretended this was just some prince and not someone he knew and really liked, maybe this would go a lot more smoothly. "I think--um. Okay. So we're stuck in kind of a fairy tale pocket dimension Witch Bandora created. And we have to find the happy endings to the stories here before we can get out."

"What do _these_ guys want?" Don sounded scared, and Gai's back straightened a little despite himself with the urge to get between him and anything threatening.

"I think we're in a fairy tale."

The Golems' blank faces were pointed squarely at them. A handful of the creatures had their arms folded in much the same way Marvelous-san usually did when he was about to tell somebody to quit making a ruckus and just do something already.

Well. Maybe he should just get it over with.

"Do you, um--do you know how to dance, Don-san?"

"Eh?"

Gai glanced up at him. Oh, but he made a perfect courtly prince. Tall and handsome and--and probably not interested in the least, he reminded himself, heat rushing to his face. It was selfish to think about romance when a fellow Ranger was missing, and double selfish to be distracted when he was the only person who knew Earth's fairy tales well enough to help the rest of his team.

"We, uh--we got stuck with the story of Cinderella." Okay. He could do this. Just like explaining about one of the Super Sentai when everyone ignored his encyclopedia for the umpteenth time, right? "Cinderella's an ordinary girl, but her fairy godmother helps her out so she can go to a ball and dance with the prince."

Fortunately he didn't have to explain any further. Unfortunately, Don leaned in very close to him--just to hiss in his ear, but still, he was close enough to make Gai's heart pound frantically.

"So these things will go away if I--if we dance?"

"I think so." The words almost came out as a squeak. It was kind of a leap of faith, but if it didn't work at least they'd be close enough to one another to fight back-to-back, just in case. Despite the bright grin Gai forced his face into, he was sure he'd already sweated through one layer of his finery. "Nothing chased us when we came here, and they're not attacking now. So maybe as long as we follow the fairy tale, they will too?"

To his surprise, the thoughtful little frown on Don's face began to melt.

"You okay following?"

Wait, what?

"I. Yes?" Gai blinked, feeling like he'd just missed something important. "I mean, yeah, of course--"

"Great. Uh. Sorry in advance if I step on your feet."

While his brain was still struggling to catch up, his heart was a riot of elated panic as Don moved to face him. For once he clamped down hard on the smile that threatened to rise and light his face, swallowing a rush of totally inappropriate happiness.

This was a mission and he was going to see it through to the end and absolutely not think about how warm Don's hand felt in his or how cute he looked while he tried to count the beats of the song under his breath. Nope. Not even a little bit.

The first few steps were little more than barely coordinated stumbling, both of them nearly tripping over each other's feet. But as they finished their first clumsy box-step, Gai noticed the Golems pulling back to give them space.

"Hey--hey, it's working!" The breath he'd been holding tumbled out in a breathless, relieved laugh. "Look, they're moving off!"

The second they both slowed down to watch, though, the creatures moved back towards them again in a solid and menacing line. The sight made them both trip and shrink into one another.

"Guess we better keep it up." Great. Gai's heart lurched with a combination of dismay and delight. "At least till we can make a break for it."

"Right."

Geki's voice rose out of the middle of the oddly silent crowd. "We'll look for another way out of here! You two keep them distracted!"

Well. At least Geki-san didn't seem to mind. If it had been Marvelous, Gai was sure they'd both end up half dead of embarrassment.

That embarrassment faded very slightly as the two of them found the tempo of the waltz and began to sway with it again. And as the urge to tear out of the room left him, Gai found he had the presence of mind to notice that Don was... a lot more graceful than he would have expected. His lips still moved as he counted out the beats, but his steps were fluid--and he moved them at nearly perfect forty-five-degree angles as they began their slow circuit of the dance floor.

"You're really good at this," Gai heard himself blurt out. The little smile he got in return made his entire body feel vastly lighter.

"Thanks. It's kinda been a while, but--I used to dance with my grandfather, when I was little."

Suddenly the music and the movement all seemed secondary. Of all the Gokaigers, Don was the most tight-lipped about the life he'd had before he'd been dragged aboard the Galleon--Gai had only ever heard him mention his lost home planet once, in passing. But as far as he knew, this was the most Don had said about his old life to anyone.

Gai felt a dozen questions start crowding one another in his throat. The first one that happened to escape was, "Were you close?"

"Yeah. He and my grandmother raised me, as far back as I can remember." That smile stretched a little wider, sending a surge of triumph all the way down Gai's spine and into the soles of his feet. "He was a mechanic, and I started helping him once I was big enough to hold his tool box without falling over. And on days when I learned something new or did really well, we'd put on music after dinner and I'd stand on his feet while we danced around the living room."

He could just picture it--a small, fair-haired boy with oil smudged on his shirt cuffs, laughing up at a kindly, gruff old man. Something in his chest stirred and warmed at the realization that Don had been happy and loved as a child, that there was more in his past than disaster and the shadow of war. It felt like a precious secret.

"He taught you really well." Gai couldn't even be embarrassed by the huge smile that must be spreading over his face. Not when he could feel Don's shoulder relaxing, very slightly, under his (only a tiny bit sweaty) palm.

"What, the dancing or the engineering?" There was almost a laugh in his voice. "But yeah, he was really smart. And he had this way of explaining stuff that I always liked. Sometimes I'd pretend not to understand a hard question on my homework, just so he'd go over it with me and make it all even easier to get. Of course, when I got older he figured out when I was faking and he'd make me explain my homework to Grandma..."

His awareness of the Golems, and of the room around them, had become muddied and secondary. He felt like a moon orbiting the bright center of this fairy tale, pulled irresistibly by Don and what he was sharing. Even if the memory was something small, even if he was only reaching for it to keep himself from getting too nervous, there was a sweetness in being close enough to hear something he'd kept locked up inside himself for so long.

And they were very close, now, nearly chest to chest as they kept up the long spiraling circuit of the waltz. He didn't feel sweaty anymore, just pleasantly warm from the inside out, his heart soaring despite the weight of all the things he wanted to ask and know and confess.

"You know," Don began, quietly--and then whatever he'd been about to say turned into a squawk as someone knocked into him from behind.

"I apologize, Doctor!" Ahim really did look sorry, as did Geki--apparently while Gai had been distracted, they'd quite literally waltzed over to check on the situation. "The door to the ballroom is locked, as are all the windows, and Joe-san is having little luck with his sword. If we are to find the others, should we not find a way out of this tale?"

The dismay and embarrassment rolled over Gai again, making his skin feel too tight. "There's kind of a problem. The next part of the story is that Cinderella leaves the ball, but--she doesn't go home until right before midnight, and we've only got until midnight to get out of here."

"And..." Anxiety tugged at Geki's face, pulling it into a frown. "And my brother said that in order to get out, we have to finish the fairy tales?"

"Yeah." Oh, now he felt even worse for not telling Geki-san about Burai-san right away. He was going to have to do something really nice for Ahim as an apology for dropping the ball on that.

"Then could we not skip to the end of this one?"

Thankfully, before Gai could point out that the story ended with a royal wedding, Don jumped in. "If we've got a time limit, we probably shouldn't mess around with it."

Gai thought of the great clock tower in the distance, imagined the hands spinning forward and landing on midnight with the sound of an enormous lock sliding shut. He shivered. If only those Golems weren't watching them--

Wait a second.

"Don-san! Take off your crown for a second."

The disappointment that fluttered in his stomach when Don let go of him vanished abruptly as Don reached up and pulled off his prince's crown. Almost instantly the music stopped, and all the Golems went still, like someone had hit pause on a video.

"What on earth--"

"Gai, how did--?"

The surprised look on his teammates' faces made Gai puff up a little with pride.

"The story can't go on if there's no prince," he grinned. "Simple as that!"

"But if the story can't go on, it can't come to a happy ending," Geki pointed out, his voice heavy with dismay. "And in order to free Goushi--"

"Hang on a second!"

With a speed and decisiveness that startled Gai, Don darted past him--straight towards one of the Golems that had been watching them dance. Before Gai could even open his mouth to ask what he was doing, Don jammed his crown firmly onto the thing's head.

The music swelled back to life, louder than before. The prince-Golem turned its blank face towards Gai and began to stride purposefully across the ballroom floor, shoving Don aside with one gray arm.

Gai stumbled backwards, panic flaring in his throat. How was he supposed to get rid of the Cinderella role? The shoes? The whole point of those was that they wouldn't fit anyone besides him! And Golems probably had monster feet anyway--

Something tugged hard at the collar of his jacket from behind. Gai nearly shrieked. Another tug, sharper this time; he thrashed to try and get his arms out of it so he could squirm free of whoever had hold of him. He hurled himself forward, flailing his way out of the heavy fabric, and barely saved himself from crashing face-first into the floor.

"Sorry!"

He managed to wobble upright again just in time to see Geki making straight for one of the now-frozen Golems at the edge of the crowd. Ahim was only half a step behind him, pink skirts swishing--and with Gai's heavy silver jacket draped over one arm. The shouted apology was Geki's; Ahim was all grim determination.

"Quickly--this one is about the same height as Gai-san!"

Watching the two of them try to wrestle the fancy coat off of an unmoving Golem and jam its stiff arms into the sleeves of his jacket was a lot like watching someone try to dress a dog. Its joints only bent with difficulty, and it slumped like it was almost completely dead weight. But somehow, as soon as they'd wrangled the jacket as far as its shoulders, the life came back into it.

Again the music swelled. This time the two Golems moved towards each other--and straight back into the waltz, shuffling through the motions.

A long, wheezing, grinding sound began somewhere under the music. It sent a chill up the back of Gai's neck--it was like the creaking hinge of a creepy old door, or like a very old clock trying to strike the hour. His stomach flipped and sank as the sound grew louder, drowning out the music... and then, with the tiny snap of a glass cracking, it stopped.

The Golems kept dancing. But the windowpanes and iron bars and the heavy wooden doors that stood between the five of them and freedom dissolved into mist, blowing away with the last of the fading sunset.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW that took a lot longer than I expected! Sorry to keep everyone waiting, and many, many thanks to ka_tsu_ra for being a very patient beta.
> 
> Stay tuned for further shenanigans!

**Author's Note:**

> OH BOY HERE WE GO. My first multi-chapter thing in ages!
> 
> I hope you're all strapped in, because it's only going to get weirder from here. (And a little sillier, but it's sentai, and what would sentai be without a healthy dose of goofiness?)


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